VOA Special English

This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

On Tuesday, the United Nations will open a "food summit" in Rome. Leaders and high-level officials from around the world will meet at the Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters. The F.A.O. says they will discuss the effects of rising food prices, limited resources, climate change, increased energy needs and population growth.

The United Nations agency says the three-day summit offers a historic chance to re-launch the fight against hunger and poverty. Another goal is to increase agricultural production in developing countries.

Poor countries will likely spend up to one hundred seventy billion dollars this year to import food -- up forty percent from last year.

A new report says agricultural prices should ease from their recent record highs. International prices for most crops have started to drop, mainly because of increased production.

But over the next ten years, food prices are expected to average well above levels of the past ten years. World grain supplies are low and need to be refilled, and food crops are being used to make biofuels.

The report came from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the F.A.O.

The F.A.O. has suggested several measures to deal immediately with the situation. These include supplying food to at–risk populations and seeds, fertilizer and animal feed to local farmers.

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